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Archive for November, 2016

James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost–Adventures in Cartooning: Characters in Action (2013)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Acting, Adventure, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Aliens, Andrew Arnold, Art, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Film & TV, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Horses, How to, James Sturm, Lianne La Havas, Magic, Series, Sketches, Tiny Desk Concert on November 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: action LIANNE LA HAVAS-Tiny Desk Concert #475 (October 2, 2015).

lianneLianne La Havas has a lovely, soulful voice. I didn’t think I knew her at all, although her song “What You Don’t Do” sounds really familiar. The chorus is a bouncy “It’s what you don’t do…it’s what you don’t say.”  But it’s the fast pre-chorus “I know what I got / and I know where were going / You don’t need to show it / I already know it all” that is really catchy.

I feel like the original is big and orchestrated.  But for this Tiny Desk it’s just her and a backing singer accompanied by a pianist who also sings backing vocals.

For song two “Unstoppable,” Lianne straps on a guitar and when she finally speaks–she has British accent!  “Unstoppable” is a gentle song with a cyclical guitar riff playing through the gentle pianos while all three voices soar.

It’s amazing how British she sounds after the second song–remarkable because of how unaccented her singing voice is.

On “Forget,” she plays guitar and there’s no other instrumentation.  This song sounds quite different from the others–the scratchy guitar isn’t really louder than the other songs, just much faster and more intense.  The real hook though comes in the chorus when all three sing a big loud “Forget!” in a memorable melody.

La Havas’ music veers towards R&B but never falls into the trappings of the genre.  She has some rock elements sand soul elements and her delivery is just charming.

[READ: July 8, 2016] Adventures in Cartooning Characters in Action

This is the fourth and (presumably) final book in the AIC series is called Characters in Action!  And as you see on the cover, the man screaming Action is a film director.  So this book is gong to take us on flights of (even more) fancy.

The book starts with the knight riding his faithful horse, Edward.  A fly goes by.  Sigh, it’s boring.

But as he rides off, he runs into a band of scoundrels–a viking, a wicked wizard an evil owl and an evil king and they are all there to do… evil!  And as they are talking about how evil they are, the real king (in rags) comes and says that he is the king.  The fake king says he looks like a beggar, then a real beggar says that the king is not a real beggar.  And then a big strong-looking knight looks at our favorite knight and says the he is no knight, either.  Egads, what is happening? (more…)

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James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost–Adventures in Cartooning Christmas Special (2012)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Andrew Arnold, Art, Christmas, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Horses, How to, James Sturm, My bubba, Series, Sketches, Tiny Desk Concert, Video Games on November 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

xmasSOUNDTRACK: OH PEP!-Tiny Desk Concert #479 (October 16, 2015).

ohpepOh Pep! is a four piece from Melbourne, Australia.  As My Bubba was named for its two members, Oh Pep! derives its Oh from Olivia Hally (vocals, guitar) and its Pep! from Pepita Emmerichs (violin, mandolin).

“The Race” is indeed about a race: “You started skipping in a running race.”  It’s a fast upbeat song–almost punky but for the fact that they are playing acoustic guitar and plucked violin (the violin really adds some great sound to this song).  I love her  fast delivery and that delivery that reminds me in some way of The Smiths.  I love the ending of four quick drum hits.

When the first song ends, they are adorably star struck.  They say that they saw Bob in front row of the crowd at the showcase and were glad “he was someone important.”  They’ve watched tons of Tiny Desk shows online an are excited to be there.

“Doctor Doctor” is pretty straightforward folky rock song, but the plucked violin (held like a guitar) works as a great accent.  The melody is familiar and you can almost hear it in the lyrics: “I went to the psychic and the psychic said he wanted to, but it’s up to you….”  I love the repeated refrain: “I know what I want and it’s not what I need.”  Even better is midway through the song when the unexpected bowed violin kicks in–and the fact that it is a little wavery and not a “clean, sharp” sounding solo really works as the song propels toward the end.

As Oh tunes her guitar she says it doesn’t know where it is: They were in Australia, then Halifax.  It was hot in Louisiana and now it’s raining–her guitar won’t stay in tune.

For the third song “Tea, Milk & Honey,” Pepe plays the mandolin.   The song starts with just guitar and voice and seems likes that’s all it will be because this section lasts pretty long–two and a half minutes of the total 5 and a half).  When the bass and mandolin eventually come in, the song really blossoms.  The chorus of “tea, milk and honey never satisfied me” is clever and fun.   Another surprising moment comes near the end when there’s a violin solo and the sound of the violin is almost like a flute-like.  It’s very cool.

Oh Pep! is a fun band that I’d like to hear more from.

[READ: July 7, 2016] Adventures in Cartooning Christmas Special

What series would be complete without a Christmas special?

This Christmas story is even told in rhyme!:  “Santa is grumbling that traditions are crumbling.” Quality toys are a thing of the past.  But the elf points out that kids don’t want old-fashioned gifts–all the elves do is “write code and upload.”

I rather enjoy that the premise of this books is that video games and TV are bad (but not really).  The point is that books and drawing are pretty awesome and great uses of your imagination.

Santa imagines a comic book which will be exciting for kids and then *poof* here comes the Magical Cartooning Elf.  He says they’ll make an exciting, outrageous comic. And *poof* here is the knight (who is mad that everyone is speaking n rhyme). (more…)

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Charles M. Schulz–The Complete Peanuts: 1987-1988: The Definitive Collection of Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip masterpiece: Dailies & Sundays (2013)

Posted in Adventure, Advice, Angst, Baseball, Basketball, Beau Geste, Bill Mauldin, Birds, Bobby Hull, Boredom, Butterflies, Cats, Charles Schulz, Citizen Kane, Comic Strips, Dogs, Doonesbury, Doug Hennig, Etiquette, Fantagraphics, Fantasy, Football, Funny (ha ha), Gary Trudeau, Gina Chavez, Golf, Gordie Howe, Halloween, Hockey, Humiliation, Jealousy, Letters, Math, Peanuts, Regrets, Religion, Romance, Sexism, Summer Camp, Technology, Tennis, The Bible, The Future, Thomas Hardy, Tiny Desk Concert, Wayne Gretzky, World War I on November 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

1987  SOUNDTRACK: GINA CHAVEZ-Tiny Desk Concert #472 (September 22, 2015 ).

ginaChavez’ voice is poppy but a little deep, almost muscular which I rather like. Or perhaps its just confidence, the blurb notes “the intense openness and warmth of her performances.”

“Fire Water” is primarily a capella and percussion (with interesting clicks and shakers and even a guy whispering “ahhh” ). A few bass notes enter near the end, but other wise it is a very stark song.

“Miles Da Millas” is dedicated to a fiend of a friend who died recently.  He loved Tiny Desk Concerts.  Whenever someone mentioned a new band he would say “But do they have a Tiny Desk?”  So this makes Gina feel like she’s made it  This song, a cumbia, is bilingual with the chorus in Spanish.  And her voice is just as strong if not more so in Spanish.   It’s fun when the percussionist yells and whoops and overall it’s a nice groovy song.  It’s a little weird that she hums a trumpet (quite well, admittedly) when there is an actual trumpet player in the band.  They take turns so I guess it’s kind of duet.

When introducing the final song, she says spent 8 months in El Salvador doing mission work teaching English in an all girls’ school.  Things are really bad down there, so she started a college scholarship fund called Niñas Arriba.  This song “Siete-D” is about a wild ride on the 7D bus from Soyapongo to San Salvador.  Soyapongo is the home of the MS13 gang, the place where guide books tell you not to go.

It’s a fun song (sung entirely in Spanish) with a cool “Sube! Hey! ho!” chant.  It’s a bouncy song with some great trumpet work.  There’s even a rap in Spanish

[READ: September 9, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1987-1988

I felt like after the major highs of the last few books, this one fell into a bit of a repetitive pattern.  This is not to say there weren’t memorable moments in the book, but there were a lot of variations on a similar jokes (especially with Spike in the desert–how many different ways can you make a joke about a cactus looking like a person with his arms up?  About fifty, I guess).

But perhaps it seems like things have changed because On 1-11 1987, that heading that has been there for so long–the hand-drawn looking “Peanuts featuring Good Ol’ Charlie Brown” had been replaced by a computer-generated font that just says “Peanuts.”  It also felt like the drawings looked different somehow–thicker lines, somewhat less polished?  And in July of 1988 it seems like Snoopy looks rather different. His ears are much smaller for one thing.  That seems to go away though.  But it’s some time round here or maybe even in a previous book that Schulz started drawing circles for eyes on Snoopy from time to time–mostly to express distress or angry.  But Snoopy is meant to have dots or sixes for eyes–the circles always look weird.  And sometime they look poorly drawn, if I may say so.   Especially on October 12 1988 (he’s supposed to look aggrieved, but they still look sloppy for Schulz).

And then, a huge shock to the system!  The daily strips go from 4 panels to 3.  Three panels!  What gives?  Is it because many of his fourth panels didn’t really have a punchline so much as a commentary on the punchline?  It’s mind blowing!  After thirty some years, he is finally messing with the format! (more…)

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James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost–Adventures in Cartooning: Activity Book (2010)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Andrew Arnold, Art, Dragons, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Horses, How to, James Sturm, My bubba, Series, Sketches, Tiny Desk Concert on November 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

activitySOUNDTRACK: MY BUBBA-Tiny Desk Concert #485 (November 6, 2015).

mybubbaMy Bubba are a duo that consists of Sweden’s My Larsdotter and Iceland’s Guðbjörg Tómasdóttir (Bubba).  They sing quiet, delicate songs about Scandinavian things (including knitting).

The set begins with a clapping rhythm as both My and Bubba execute a complex rhythmic clapping (in cool synchronicity) using all parts of their bodies.  They both sing delicately with occasional harmonies.  And the sweet title of the song: “Dogs Laying Around Playing.”

For the second song, “Charm” Bubba plays guitar and My plays an old table harp.  This song is just as delicate as the first.  Somehow that table harp seems to make the song even lighter than the first.

There’s a pause after the second song where My drinks some tea and Bubba asks if there are any questions?  Bob asks them to tell a scary train story, because My is a locomotive engineer when they are not singing.  She laughs and says “My train hit a wild boar and it made a big bam and then she kept going.”  She hopes her boss isn’t listening.   Then My says she writes a lot of songs while she is driving the train to relieve boredom.  Bubba confirms that on one song on the new album you can hear the train because My recorded herself singing in the train.

“Knitting” is a capella and may have more going on than knitting, but  don’t think so.  The final song, “Ghost Sweat” is a new one. Bubba plays guitar and loops it.  My sings lead and when Bubba comes in with the harmonies, it sounds fantastic.

The music is delicate but not so precious that it will float away.

[READ: July 5, 2016] Adventures in Cartooning Activity Book

The guys from Adventures in Cartooning are back.  This time with a book that encourages the reader to fill in the blanks.  The full title of this release is The Center for Cartoon Studies Presents Adventures in Cartooning: Activity Book.

But unlike most do it yourself books, this one has two functions.  It tells a story that you get to impact and it teaches some of the basics of cartooning as well.

The story focuses on the same gang from the main book–the knight, Edward the horse and the Elf, but there’s much more going on.  As the book opens, we see the moon and sun talking.  The moon is ready to go to bed and he is content because of the bedtime story he heard.  Bu the sun never gets told a bedtime story and she begins to cry.  Poor sun. (more…)

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James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost–Adventures in Cartooning (2009)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Andrew Arnold, Art, Dragons, Drawing, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Horses, How to, James Sturm, Series, Sketches, The Wild Reeds, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on November 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »

adventSOUNDTRACK: THE WILD REEDS-Tiny Desk Concert #489 (November 20, 2015).

wildreedsThe Wild Reeds are a five piece band who prominently feature a trio of women with beautiful voices. They had submitted a video for the 2014 Tiny Desk Contest, and they are pretty excited to be at the Tint Desk just a short time later.

The trio change instruments so it’s not easy to say who does what.  And since all three of them have gorgeous voices, you can’t even single one out!  When they sing together it’s even more impressive.

“Where I’m Going” is the great lead-off track (from their 2014 album).  Kinsey Lee sings lead and plays acoustic guitar (and harmonica).  Sharon Silva plays electric guitar and Mackenzie How plays harmonium (and harmonica).  Kinsey has a powerful kind of rocking voice while the other two offer great harmonies.  There’s some moments where all three are singing super loud and it’s really impressive.

The next two songs are new.

Sharon sings lead on “Everything Looks Better In Hindsight” and continues to play a really rocking electric guitar (she really crushes those chords). Kinsey switches to banjo, but also plays harmonium.  Mackenzie also plays electric guitar and this song rocks pretty hard.  Sharon’s voice is a bit smoother until the chorus where she wails.  And the harmonies are again outstanding.  I think it is Mackenzie’s harmonies that really elevate the song.

There are a bassist and drummer (unnamed) who add low end to the first two song (but not the final one).  The trio is the focus, but the rhythm section’s contributions are really good.

Mackenzie sings lead on  “The World We Built”  This is the most mellow of the three songs. She plays electric guitar (the only music in the song) and the other two sing harmonies.

Although their music can veer in the country direction, their voices are so good you can easily look past it.

[READ: July 5, 2016] Adventures in Cartooning

The full title of this release is The Center for Cartoon Studies Presents Adventures in Cartooning: How To Turn You Doodles into Comics.  This is an instructional cartooning book which also tells a fun story.

And I loved it.  I have recently discovered James Sturms’ books, and I love his simple but powerful style.

As it opens “Once upon a time, a princess tried to make a comic.”  The girl says she can’t draw well enough to make a comic But the Magic Cartooning Elf comes to help her.  He says that if she can draw simple stuff, then there is nothing stopping her. (more…)

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Eric Orchard–Bera The One-Headed Troll (2016)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Andra Day, Babies, Eric Orchard, Fairy Tales, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Greed, Tiny Desk Concert, Trolls, Witches on November 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

beraSOUNDTRACK: ANDRA DAY-Tiny Desk Concert #478 (October 13, 2015).

andra Andra Day looks…unusual.  Her hair is put up in a yellow scarf, she has a day-glo green clip in the front of her hair. She has dramatic eye liner on and bright red lips.  It’s quite a look.  And when she contorts her face in voice–the makeup really accentuates everything–as if she was made up for the stage rather than a close up.

But she earns the look with her powerful voice and delivery.

“Forever Mine” is an R&B song that her band assist with nice backing vocals. I love that the pianist is playing what sound lie a toy piano on top of the real piano.

“Rise Up” has a descending vocal melody that’s not unlike Prince.  It is a simple ballad played on keys and acoustic guitar.  The end has a kind of gospel tinge (and of course she does the vocal gymnastics of the genre that I really hate).  This could easily be in a movie or on some TV singing show.

Before “Gold” she asks “am I allowed to say that?” but I can’t figure out what she’s asking about as there’s nothing bad in the song that I can hear.  Of the three songs this is my favorite, particularly her unusual deliver of some of the verses and the neat keyboard sound they use.  Of course it drives me a little nuts that she sings “slipping true my hands” (her backing singers do actually sing “through” thankfully), but this is a good dramatic set ender.

[READ: October 12, 2016] Bera The One-Headed Troll

This is an unusual book.  It’s kind of cute, but in a dark and creepy way.  The whole book is done in tones of brown, making it unique in its appearance.

It took me a few dozen pages to get into this book (which is 126 pages–pretty long for a children’s graphic novel), but once the flow started happening, I thought it was quite good.

The slowness in the beginning was largely because of exposition–some of which wasn’t really necessary, I don’t think.

I also felt some confusion about Bera herself. Bera is a one-headed troll.  The fact that this is important enough to be the title seems like it should be addressed in some way in the story. But it isn’t.  We meet some other trolls with more than one head, but it’s unclear if they get more heads as they get older or if they are born that way.  Her one-headedness is never actually addressed. (more…)

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